Soul Searching Over Wen Ho Lee

September 28, 2000

Although the prosecution of Wen Ho Lee fizzled, the persecution of the fired Los Alamos scientist by Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis J. Freeh continues apace. Reno and Freeh admitted in a joint hearing of Senate committees Tuesday that Justice Department prosecutors made mistakes. But they offered no regrets, no doubts or apologies.

Instead, they defended their department's indictment of Lee last December on 59 counts of security violations, only to set him free earlier this month in a plea bargain. And they tried to do in public what they couldn't do in court: Convict him.

After spending nine months in solitary confinement, often in shackles, Lee pleaded guilty to one count of mishandling classified documents. That was pretty thin gruel, compared to the espionage of which he initially was suspected, although never charged.

In the end, the case against Lee brought criticism from President Clinton and the federal district judge in the case, James A. Parker. But, in their most detailed defense yet, Reno and Freeh insisted that Lee was no hero, martyr or "absent-minded professor." In fact, they insisted in a joint statement that they could have prevailed on each of the 59 counts had the case gone to trial. They agreed to a plea bargain, they said, because Lee's attorneys could have forced disclosure of "extremely sensitive" nuclear secrets.

With that, they sounded something like the schoolyard bully who ducks out of a fight by saying he could have won, but didn't feel like it. Reno and Freeh would have been wise to act a bit chastened, considering the evidence that prosecutors misrepresented evidence to the court in the Lee case.

As well, it defied credibility for Reno and Freeh to insist that, until they saw recent news reports, they were not aware of the harsh conditions in which Lee was held. Advocacy groups for Lee had been raising the issue with prosecutors and in the media since the early weeks of Lee's imprisonment last December.

Rather than attempting in the media a prosecution that failed in court, the Justice Department needs to examine the handling of Lee's case--particularly compared to that of former CIA director John Deutch, who has been treated far more leniently despite apparent evidence that he mishandled classified documents.

Journalists are in for some soul-searching, too. In an unusual "From the Editors" note, The New York Times scrutinized its own reporting on Lee and expressed regret for its failure to balance the government's case against him with more views from experts who had doubts about it. The press cannot indict, but it can accuse, and that's a significant tool.

So there's plenty of soul-searching to go around. It starts, though, with those who have the awesome power of the government, and the awesome responsibility to wield that power carefully.